Science Council

David Ainley

Senior Ecologist at H. T. Harvey & Associates

David Ainley

Senior Ecologist at H. T. Harvey & Associates

David Ainley received his BS degree from Dickinson College and PhD from Johns Hopkins University. He has made ~30 trips to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, about half on oceanographic research vessels. Currently, he is involved in research on penguin demography, as well as studying the effects of penguin and cetacean foraging on penguin prey availability around Ross Island using an ocean glider and Remotely Operated Vehicles. He’s also worked extensively in the California Current, including many cruises, as well as founding and then working at the PRBO marine research program on the Farallon Islands; he led the restoration of the islands, removing 100 yrs of debris as well as feral animals. He initiated efforts to designate the Ross Sea MPA, then followed up justifying its existence through papers, presentations and film; the effort was successful in part (www.lastocean.org). He’s written 4 books, 12 monographs and ~230 papers about the ecology of marine top predators: seabirds, mammals and sharks.

Mark Carr

Professor of marine ecology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz

Mark Carr

Professor of marine ecology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz

Dr. Mark Carr is a Professor of marine ecology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. His research focuses on the ecology of coastal marine fishes and coastal marine ecosystems and informs a variety of topics in marine conservation and fisheries management (http://research.pbsci.ucsc.edu/eeb/rclab/). His research enlightens the design and evaluation of marine protected areas (MPAs). For eight years, Mark served as Co-chair of the Science Advisory Team to California’s Marine Life Protection Act, which culminated in the establishment of a network of marine protected areas the length of the coast of California. He was also the Co-chair of the Science Advisory Team to California’s Ocean Protection Council. Currently, he is a member of the US NOAA Federal Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Council. He is a founding principal investigator with the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO), a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences and the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program.

Ratana Chuenpagdee

Professor in Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland

Ratana Chuenpagdee

Professor in Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland

Ratana Chuenpagdee is a Professor in Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. She is currently leading a major global research partnership, Too Big To Ignore, which aims at elevating the profile of small-scale fisheries and rectifying their marginalization in national and international policies. As part of this project, she’s coordinating research and activities to support the implementation of the SSF Guidelines. Her research emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to coastal, fisheries and ocean governance, focusing particularly on small-scale fisheries, marine protected areas, community-based management and food security.
From 2006 to 2016, she held the Canada Research Chair in Natural Resource Sustainability and Community Development at Memorial University. Ratana studied in Thailand, the US and UK and received a PhD from University of British Columbia, Canada.

Leslie Cornick

Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Alaska Marine Conservation Council

Leslie Cornick

Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Alaska Marine Conservation Council

Dr. Leslie Cornick has been working on marine conservation science in Alaska since 1999, with an emphasis on the physiological and behavioral plasticity of marine mammal foraging behavior under changing environmental conditions, and how buffer zones in and around critical habitat impact population stability and recovery. In 2010 she served as a Senior Policy Fellow with Marine Conservation Institute, working to identify key areas for potential MPAs in Alaska. She has also worked on identifying and mitigating marine mammal-industry interactions and their potential impacts. She founded and currently serves as the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, and has been part of the GLORES project since its inception.

John A. Cigliano

Cedar Crest College, Acadia National Park, United States

John A. Cigliano

Cedar Crest College, Acadia National Park, United States

John A. Cigliano is Professor of Biology and Director of Environmental Conservation at Cedar Crest College, adjunct faculty at Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park, and is Past President of the Marine Section of the Society for Conservation Biology. John is the co-chair of the International Congress of Conservation Biology. His research includes studying the effectiveness of a marine reserve on queen conch (Strombus gigas) populations and the effect of ocean acidification and warming on the temperate intertidal organisms and communities. His other interests include conservation education and outreach and using citizen science to advance marine and coastal conservation.

Barbara Horta e Costa

Postdoc researcher at CCMAR

Barbara Horta e Costa

Postdoc researcher at CCMAR

Barbara Horta e Costa has been working on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) all her career. She studied Marine Biology and Fisheries at the University of the Algarve, during which she spent a semester in Amazonia to study the aquatic reserves. She did her masters in the same institution with the collaboration of Centro de Investigaciones Marinas from the University of La Habana (Cuba), where she spent six months on a thesis entitled: “Distribution and Abundance of commercial fish in and around the Marine Protected Area (MPA) of Punta Frances, Cuba.” After, she did a PhD in MPA effectiveness at the Parque Marinho Professor Luiz Saldanha with the University of the Algarve, but mainly at MARE- ISPA - Instituto Universitário and Marine Sciences Institute from the University of California at Santa Barbara (USA). The dissertation was entitled “The effect of conservation measures on the spatial and temporal variation of rocky fish assemblages in the Arrábida Marine Park, Portugal”, but it also involved the effects of conservation measures in the local fisheries and the adaptation of local fish assemblages to warming in the last 50 years.
She was a researcher of the BiodivERsA project: “BUFFER - Partially protected areas as buffers to increase the linked social-ecological resilience” at CCMAR. Among a variety of tasks and work packages, B.H.C was part of the scientific coordination of WP1 – Typology of Partially Protected Areas (PPAs), upon which the study of this talk is based. After that, she had a brief postdoc position at CNRS-EPHE Criobe (University of Perpignan) and Labex Corail (FMSH fellowship), with a study she proposed, called “FEVER – fisheries (socio-ecological) vulnerability to climate change”.
Since December 2015 she is a postdoc researcher of CCMAR (FCT fellowship) in the FBC/CFRG lab (with Prof. Karim Erzini and Dr. Jorge Gonçalves) and is running a study entitled “Linking the ecological and evolutionary roles of MPAs: implications for management”. It includes the study of spawning aggregations (when, where, duration) in the Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina through fishers’ perceptions and ecological surveys. It also involves the study of protection vs. fishing selectivity of fish behavior (movement) according to the time spent in the different protection zones and individuals home range.
She has been teaching the course ‘Ocean Governance and Marine Protected Areas’ in the Masters of Marine Biology and Conservation at ISPA – Instituto Universitário since 2014. She is collaborating with a variety of projects on MPAs, including a consultancy for WWF in Portugal and Fundação Oceano Azul on Portuguese MPAs (types of MPAs, coverage, governance, management).

Mark J. Costello

University of Auckland, New Zealand

Mark J. Costello

University of Auckland, New Zealand

Dr. Mark J. Costello is based in the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he has coordinated the post-graduate course in Marine Protected Areas (MPA) since 2004. Personal webpage. He is passionate about the need for more fully-protected Marine Reserves for economic, social, spiritual and scientific reasons. Related research interests include global patterns of biodiversity and biogeography, biodiversity informatics, methods of biodiversity measurement including habitat mapping, and invasive species ecology. He conducted his PhD in Ireland’s first marine Nature Reserve, Lough Hyne, and led the BioMar project, the largest marine ecological survey of Ireland that recommended a national network of Special Areas of Conservation (MPA).

Joachim Claudet

National Center for Scientific Research, France

Joachim Claudet

National Center for Scientific Research, France

Joachim Claudet specializes in marine protected area (MPA) evaluations and linked coastal social-ecological research at the land-sea interface, using place-based case studies to inform management or meta-analyzes to impact policy. He is interested in research that helps implement appropriate monitoring designs and management plans, develop indicators and decision-making tools. Expert on MPAs for PISCO and WWF, he is also involved in IPBES regional assessments and several scientific councils and is the president of the scientific committee of MedPAN, the network of Mediterranean MPA managers. Joachim Claudet recently edited a book on MPAs at Cambridge University Press.

Tammy Davies

Marine Scientist at BirdLife International

Tammy Davies

Marine Scientist at BirdLife International

Dr. Tammy Davies is a conservation scientist interested in how an interdisciplinary approach can be used to understand social-ecological systems. She has worked in marine conservation across a range of scales from community-based resource management in SW Madagascar to global analyses on the effectiveness of large marine protected areas. During her Postdoctoral Fellowship with Dr Natalie Ban at the University of Victoria (Canada), Tammy focused on the conservation potential of large marine protected areas, and trade-offs across social and ecological outcomes. Tammy has also participated in international networks to improve large-scale marine conservation, including developing a social science research agenda and management guidelines for large marine protected areas. Tammy is currently a Marine Scientist at BirdLife International working on issues relating to biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions.

Jon C. Day

Great Barrier Reef Marine Protected Area Director (1998-2014

Jon C. Day

Great Barrier Reef Marine Protected Area Director (1998-2014

Jon was a protected area planner and manager in Australia for 39 years, 28 years of which were in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park until Jon retired in 2014. As one of the Directors at GBRMPA (1998-2014), Jon was variously responsible for conservation, planning, heritage (particularly World Heritage), Indigenous Partnerships and developing methodologies for the first Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report. Jon’s career highlight was his role in the Representative Areas Program, the major rezoning of the GBR (1999-2004) that subsequently received numerous awards. For his efforts, Jon was awarded an Australian Public Service Medal (PSM) and a Smithsonian-Queensland Fellowship. Prior to working on the GBR, Jon spent 11 years in planning and field management positions in various terrestrial parks. Jon has 60+ peer-reviewed publications including 13 book chapters/books, and is currently completing a PhD at the ARC Centre for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, Townsville, Australia https://www.coralcoe.org.au/person/jon-day

Daniel C. Dunn

Duke University, United States

Daniel C. Dunn

Duke University, United States

Dr. Dunn is an Assistant Research Professor with the Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab at Duke University. As an interdisciplinary marine conservation ecologist, he strives for an integrative approach bringing together ecology, oceanography, conservation, natural resource management and social sciences (particularly with respect to governance). His research focuses on applying ecological theory to develop applied solutions to natural resource management and conservation problems through area-based management across a range of scales. Specifically, his current work centers on understanding: 1) how dynamic management can address mismatches in the scale of resource distribution, resource use and resource management; 2) how social and ecological processes generate pattern in anthropogenic stressors and biodiversity at meso- and macro-scales; and 3) how systematic conservation planning can be scaled up to a global level to inform marine policy beyond national jurisdictions. His work has been pivotal in developing the concept of Dynamic Ocean Management and understanding the status, need and potential for conservation of areas beyond national jurisdiction. He sits on the Science Board of the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative (GOBI) and was previously a liaison for the Census of Marine Life to the Secretariat to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In these capacities he has been intimately involved in facilitating and analyzing the description of the CBD’s Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) and is now working to inform the International Seabed Authority’s efforts to identify Areas of Particular Environmental Interest and negotiations over a new international legally binding instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of areas beyond national jurisdiction at the UN.

Rodolphe Devillers

Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada

Rodolphe Devillers

Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada

Rodolphe Devillers is Professor of Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland, specialized in GIS and geospatial technologies that can support marine sciences and marine conservation. He leads the Marine Geomatics Research Lab that looks for instance at methods for improving the design of marine protected areas (MPA), assessing the effectiveness of MPA networks, mapping species at risk using species distribution models and mapping benthic habitats using underwater acoustic techniques. Devillers currently President of the Canadian Institute of Geomatics (CIG), a national non-for-profit organization in the fields of geospatial technologies. He is involved in several environmental NGOs, being for instance on the Board of Directors of the Living Oceans Society (LoS) and the Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association (PacMARA). He was also involved in a number of processes aiming to establish marine protected areas in different regions of Canada.

Alan Friedlander

National Geographic Society, University of Hawai'i, United States

Alan Friedlander

National Geographic Society, University of Hawai'i, United States

Over the past 35 years Alan Friedlander has spent more than 10,000 hours underwater—from coral reefs to the Arctic and to depths of thousands of meters. He is currently Chief Scientist for National Geographic’s Pristine Seas Project where he leads research efforts to help understand and conserve the last wild places in the ocean. Alan’s work on marine conservation range from small-scale community-managed areas to some of the largest protected areas on the planet. Alan is also the Director of the Fisheries Ecology Research Lab at the University of Hawaii. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii and was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Associate with the Pacific Fisheries Environmental Lab in Monterey, California.Alan is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 2006 Duke University Distinguished Conservation Scholar,and along with the Pristine Seas Team, was awarded the 2014 Environmental Hero Award by the Environmental Media Association.

Emanuel Gonçalves

Emanuel Gonçalves

Emanuel Gonçalves is an Associate Professor at ISPA – Instituto Universitário in
Lisbon, Portugal, and Vice-President of MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences
Centre. Is a member of the Board of Directors of the Oceano Azul Foundation and a
member of the National Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development.
Was the deputy head of the Task Group for Marine Affairs which developed
Portugal’s Ocean Strategy and the lead negotiator for the EU in the CBD COP which
approved the EBSAs criteria. His research interests are marine conservation, marine
spatial planning and MPAs, and marine ecology. Has been involved in the
designation and implementation of MPAs in Portugal and elsewhere, including
discussions on the conservation of the high seas. Has developed, together with coauthors,
a new regulation-based classification system for MPAs and is author or coauthor
of over 60 papers including on the reserve effect and the effectiveness of
MPAs.

Kirsten Grorud-Colvert

Marine ecologist and assistant professor in the Integrative Biology Department at Oregon State University

Kirsten Grorud-Colvert

Marine ecologist and assistant professor in the Integrative Biology Department at Oregon State University

Dr. Grorud-Colvert is a marine ecologist and assistant professor in the Integrative Biology Department at Oregon State University. She has studied ocean organisms underwater and above the waves in the Oregon nearshore, the Florida Keys, and the California Channel Islands and has worked with fellow scientists around the world to compile and synthesize data from other marine systems. She is broadly interested in the ecology of marine communities and the connections between healthy ecosystems and the people that depend on them. A key goal of her work is to use data from diverse marine species and habitats to understand what happens when we protect an area of the ocean and to use that knowledge to design even better protection. Learn more about Dr. Grorud-Colvert’s research at http://people.oregonstate.edu/~grorudck.
Dr. Grorud-Colvert also directs the Science of Marine Reserves Project. The goal of this international collaboration is to catalyze, synthesize, and communicate scientific data about marine protected areas to help find solutions to the challenges facing our ocean. This global team of marine ecologists, communication specialists, marine reserve experts and graphic designers develops both scientific publications and educational resources for the general public. These resources include informational booklets with case studies, user-friendly graphics and Google Earth animations of scientific data. For more information, visit www.piscoweb.org/science-marine-reserves-project.

Ellen M Hines

Ellen M Hines

Dr. Ellen M. Hines' research addresses population and community ecology of threatened and endangered species. Her expertise is in inclusion of local conservation efforts and regional scale coastal and marine management science in marine protected area planning. Dr. Hines works with colleagues in California and in SE Asia on the evolution of consistent standards of field methodology and monitoring techniques, and on the creation of educational materials that can be applied to community-based conservation planning.

Mark Hixon

Professor and Hsiao Endowed Chair in Marine Biology Department of Biology University of Hawai‘i

Mark Hixon

Professor and Hsiao Endowed Chair in Marine Biology Department of Biology University of Hawai‘i

An expert in the ecology and conservation biology of coastal marine fishes, Mark Hixon has long experience with marine protected area science and policy, both in the United States and abroad. In 1999, he co-authored an analysis of potential reserve sites for the government of the Bahamas, and these recommendations were subsequently used to produce that nation’s network of marine reserves. In 2003, he was appointed to the new U.S. Federal Advisory Committee for Marine Protected Areas, for which he served as chair from 2006 to 2009. Mark published several scientific papers regarding MPAs, including as senior author of the first empirical demonstration of an effective network of marine protected areas seeding fished areas with larvae spawned within the network (Christie et al. 2010 PLoS One). He also co-chaired the community stakeholder group that designed Oregon’s Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve, which was implemented in 2014.

David Hyrenbach

Hawai'i Pacific University, United States

David Hyrenbach

Hawai'i Pacific University, United States

David Hyrenbach was born in Spain, received a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Scripps Institution, and moved to Hawaii in 2008. Currently an associate professor of oceanography at Hawai'i Pacific University, David Hyrenbach’s research examines how oceanographic variability shapes the distributions of marine vertebrates, and how habitat preferences influence the efficacy of spatially-explicit management strategies. He has pursued these questions by developing the conceptual foundation for pelagic marine protected areas (MPAs), assessing the overlap of protected seabirds with fisheries, and quantifying the habitats of far-ranging marine vertebrates. Hyrenbach has conducted this work in the California Current, the Southern Indian Ocean, the Bering Sea, and the Western Mediterranean. Since 2008, Hyrenbach has focused on the distribution and habitats of Hawaiian seabirds, through at-sea surveys and tracking. This research seeks to quantify the overlap of protected species with potential anthropogenic threats, involving fisheries and marine debris.

Sarah E. Lester

Professor in the Geography Department at Florida State University

Sarah E. Lester

Professor in the Geography Department at Florida State University

Dr. Sarah E. Lester is a faculty member in the Geography Department at Florida State University. She received her PhD in marine ecology from UC Santa Barbara; her dissertation examined the roles of dispersal ability and reproductive output in driving large-scale biogeographic patterns in marine species. Her current research focuses on the ecological effects of marine protected areas, applying tradeoff analysis to marine resource management and spatial planning, sustainable management of fisheries and mariculture and ecosystem-based management. She has conducted global syntheses on the ecological effects and factors influencing effectiveness of marine protected areas, and works to connect science about MPAs to managers and conservation practitioners.

Sara Maxwell

Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University

Sara Maxwell

Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University

Dr Sara Maxwell is an Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia where she heads the Marine Sustainability Ecology Lab. Her research focuses on the development of science-based solutions to conservation and management issues in the ocean, with expertise is in the application of spatial tools, such as satellite tracking and oceanographic modeling. Dr. Maxwell uses these tools to understanding the distribution of large marine predators, how these predators interact with ocean processes and how this knowledge can be applied to managing predator populations, human activities and ocean resources. Her focus is on dynamic ocean management, marine protected areas, managing bycatch in marine fisheries and the sustainability of clean energy, particularly wind energy.

Douglas McCauley

Assistant Professor at the University of California Santa Barbara

Douglas McCauley

Assistant Professor at the University of California Santa Barbara

Douglas McCauley began his career as a fisherman in the Port of Los Angeles. He now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of California Santa Barbara.
Prof. McCauley has a degree in political science and biology from UC Berkeley. His PhD research was done at Stanford University where he studied the ecology of sharks, large parrotfish and coral reef ecosystems. Prof. McCauley did postdoctoral research at Stanford University, Princeton University and UC Berkeley. Much of Prof. McCauley’s research has been conducted in marine protected areas and explores the diverse values of these strategically important parts of our global ocean.
Work from the McCauley Lab has been published in journals such as Science and Nature and has been featured in media outlets such as the New York Times, BBC, Time and US National Public Radio. Prof. McCauley was named a Sloan Research Fellow in the Ocean Sciences.

Laurence McCook

President's International Visiting Professorial Fellow with the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Laurence McCook

President's International Visiting Professorial Fellow with the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Professor Laurence McCook works in science-based management and conservation of marine ecosystems, especially coral reefs. He is currently President's International Visiting Professorial Fellow with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology in Guangzhou. He is also Partner Investigator in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. Prof. McCook has more than 30 years’ experience, including coral reefs in Australia, Indonesia and the “Coral Triangle” and the Caribbean. He has worked with government, academic, non-government and industry sectors and international bodies. Laurence worked for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority from 2003 to 2014, where he was responsible for the scientific basis of management. Before that, he spent 12 years at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, researching the ecology of coral reef resilience and degradation, the effects of water pollution, climate change and over-fishing. In 2005, Laurence was awarded a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation.

Lance Morgan

Marine Conservation Institute, United States

Lance Morgan

Marine Conservation Institute, United States

Dr. Lance Morgan, a marine biologist, came to Marine Conservation Institute as a postdoctoral fellow in 2000 and became president of the organization in 2012. He is integral to building the Global Ocean Refuge System and will also focus on developing partnerships for the initiative.
He has worked on marine protected areas over the past decade including serving as Chairman of the Cordell Bank Sanctuary Advisory Council and participating in the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative in California that designed the first statewide system of marine protected areas in the USA. He led efforts to identify Marine Priority Conservation Areas from Baja California to the Bering Sea for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, and has authored reports on the impacts of fishing methods on marine life as well as papers on marine protected areas. He currently is Chairman of the Board for the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition and holds a research faculty appointment at Bodega Marine Laboratory.
Lance has explored the ocean as a scuba diver, aquanaut and submersible pilot. Son of a US Navy nuclear submarine captain, he learned about and became deeply committed to conserving our oceans while living in California, Hawaii and Washington. Lance’s research interests range from zoology to conservation science and he has studied taxa as diverse as deep sea corals, rockfishes, seabirds and orcas.
Lance received a BA from University of California Santa Cruz, and his Master’s in Marine Science from San Francisco State University. As a graduate student he participated in two missions at the Aquarius underwater habitat in the Florida Keys. His doctoral research explored factors influencing recruitment of marine invertebrates, for which he received his PhD in Ecology from UC Davis. He conducted postdoctoral research at Bodega Marine Laboratory and NOAA Fisheries.

Elliott Norse

Marine Conservation Institute, United States

Elliott Norse

Marine Conservation Institute, United States

Dr. Elliott Norse is the Founder of Marine Conservation Institute and is devoted to solving marine conservation problems on a global-scale. He believes that strongly protected marine areas are the most cost-effective way to save ocean life in the coming century. Elliott is the visionary behind GLORES and will focus on providing strategic guidance for the initiative.
After earning his PhD in marine ecology from the University of Southern California, Elliott began his career in conservation, advocating for marine protected areas at the US Environmental Protection Agency and then pioneered the concept of conserving biological diversity as the Staff Ecologist for the White House Council on Environmental Quality in 1980. While there, he persuaded President Carter to triple the number of US national marine sanctuaries.
Elliott literally wrote the book on marine conservation (Global Marine Biological Diversity 1993), the most-cited book in the field. He founded Marine Conservation Institute in 1996, organized the first-ever scientific Symposia on Marine Conservation Biology (1997 and 2001), got President Clinton to issue his Executive Order on Marine Protected Areas in 2000, assembled the first textbook on Marine Conservation Biology (2005), and his meetings with White House officials in 2005 and 2006 led President G.W. Bush to designate the NW Hawaiian Islands as the world’s then largest strongly protected area. Elliott is a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation, served as President of the Society for Conservation Biology’s Marine Section and has received the Nancy Foster Award for Habitat Conservation from the National Marine Fisheries Service. He is also the author of “A Blog to Save the Earth.”
He has given hundreds of presentations around the world including keynote speeches on marine protected areas to Grandes Aires Marine Protégées in Paris, the EU’s Commission for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in Brussels and National Geographic’s Mission Blue conference in Washington DC.

Bethan O’Leary

University of York, United Kingdom

Bethan O’Leary

University of York, United Kingdom

Dr Bethan O’Leary is a Research Associate in the Environment Department at the University of York, UK. Her research currently focuses on large-scale marine protected areas (MPAs) and MPAs in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). She is working to inform negotiations over a new implementing agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in ABNJ at the United Nations. She was previously a member of the scientific research team that developed proposals for the world’s first network of high seas MPAs in the North-East Atlantic under the OSPAR Convention, which led to the designation of six high seas MPAs in 2010. Bethan received her BSc degree from the University of Southampton and her MSc and PhD from the University of York.

Jennifer O'Leary

California Sea Grant, Cal Poly, United States

Jennifer O'Leary

California Sea Grant, Cal Poly, United States

Jennifer O'Leary studies how human disturbance and environmental variability affect
persistence and recovery of marine systems, and how humans can manage complex
systems for long term sustainability. She has worked for 20 years designing
research and management to address conservation challenges in the western
USA, coastal East Africa, and in Pacific Islands. Dr. O'Leary uses a combination of
tools including field, laboratory, and meta-analytic approaches. She works
closely with managers and communities to develop ways to integrate science
and conservation to facilitate effective management of marine resources. Dr. O'Leary
is the co-director of the Science for Active Management (SAM) Program in
East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean (*http://sam4wio.weebly.com
<http://sam4wio.weebly.com/>*) and works with the Kenya Wildlife Service,
Seychelles National Parks Authority, and Tanzania Parks Authority to help
managers and fishing communities use data to make proactive management
decisions and ensure that MPAs and fished reefs are socially and
ecologically resilient. She has trained well over 1,000 MPA managers in
adaptive and evidence-based MPA management.

Rashid Sumaila

Professor and Director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia

Rashid Sumaila

Professor and Director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia

Dr. Sumaila is Professor and Director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia. He received his Ph.D. from Bergen University, Norway, and holds a B.Sc. with honors from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria. Dr. Sumaila is deeply interested in how economics, through integration with ecology and other disciplines, can be used to help ensure that ocean resources are sustainably managed for the benefit of both current and future generations. His key recent contributions include 1) applying game theory to fisheries; 2) rethinking the nature of the discount rates applied in marine resource valuations, and formulating a highly original alternative, i.e., “intergeneration discount rates”; 3) understanding the nature, amounts and effects of government subsidies on global fisheries; 4) estimating the multiple benefits that would be obtained globally by rebuilding fish stocks and setting up marine reserves, including conceiving of the High Seas as a large marine reserve. Sumaila has authored over 200 journal articles; which have appeared in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Climate Change, Ecological Economics and the Journal of Environmental Economics & Management. Dr. Sumaila is winner of the 2017 Peter Benchley Ocean Award in the Excellence in Science category; the 2016 UBC Killam Faculty Research Prize; the 2013 American Fisheries Society Excellence in Public Outreach; the Stanford Leopold Leadership Fellowship and the Pew Marine Fellowship. He was named a Hokkaido University Ambassador in 2016. His work is highly regarded by policy makers at the highest levels, resulting in invitations to give talks at the United Nations, the White House, the U.S. Congress, the European Parliament, the African Union, the British House of Lords and the Canadian Parliament.

Arthur Omondi Tuda

Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya

Arthur Omondi Tuda

Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya

Arthur Omondi Tuda has over 18-years of experience in marine protected areas (MPA) management. A conservation leader known for his role in promoting management effectiveness of MPAs in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region, Tuda has earned recognition as an MPA-Pro, by the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA). With a focus on strategic management to further MPA goals, he has steered management effectiveness and adaptive management programs in MPAs in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region which has brought a new perspective of knowledge-oriented management of MPAs in the region.
Tuda’s career includes MPA managerial roles in Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) including overseeing management of 5 MPAs and the coastal landscapes in Kenya. He is currently the Head of Ecosystems and Landscape Conservation and Management at KWS. Tuda holds an MSc degree in Water and Coastal Management from the University of Bergen in Norway and University of Plymouth, UK. He will be completing his PhD studies in Marine & Coastal Management from the University of Cadiz in Spain in February 2018.